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"Anime Pilgrimage". Author: Edgar Axelsson Media Technology: Strategic Media Development

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Digital tourism: Building experience for Seichi Junrei "Anime pilgrimage". Author: Edgar Axelsson Media Technology: Strategic Media Development. Master thesis, 30 credits, advanced level (ME620A). Malmö University. Supervisor: Martin Berg. Examiner: Thomas Pederson. Date of submission: 25th of June 2020. Abstract Despite growing as a new popular facet of tourism in Japan, Seichi junrei is still niche and largely undocumented, stifling both the experiences of participants as well as the opportunities in the tourism industry. The tourism industry is changing and always trying to improve but lacks a personal touch. According to studies, the tourism industry focuses more on mainstream tourism than it does on niche tourism. Seichi junrei community issues are not being heard by the tourism industry; There are no user-friendly platforms available for the subculture to contribute towards tourism. This text explores the development of tourism and improving the experiences of tourists participating in the phenomena known as seichi junrei. Seichi junrei is explored through ethnography to create bonds. Together as a team of voluntary participants, through participatory design challenges the current problems with tourist experiences and improves them through digital tourism. The thesis creates a community and a platform that solves the user experience problems of seichi junrei. Seichi junrei becomes a guide for new fans where everyone can work as a community and help evolve the tourism phenomena of seichi junrei. Keywords: subculture, digital tourism, participatory design, user experience, otaku, community development, and niche tourism. Acknowledgments Special thanks to the following individuals who took part in this master’s thesis research: ● Martin Berg for supervising the thesis ● My family for supporting me along the way Also, special thanks to the following communities for taking part in interviews and testing the prototype: ● /r/laidback camp ● Joey Bizinger and the local Japanese otaku community for providing seiche junrei experiences ● Lee Cheong Loong (YogurtM; http://yogurtmedia.net) for providing information about inside the anime industry “Edgar can achieve anything; the only thing he needs to do is put his mind to it.”–Valentina 2002 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 1 STUDY LIMITATION 3 RESEARCH QUESTION 3 LITERATURE REVIEW 4 METHOD 11 ETHNOGRAPHY 12 PARTICIPATORY DESIGN 14 PROTOTYPE 15 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 15 SUMMARY 16 AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF SEICHI JUNREI TODAY 17 ONLINE OBSERVATION 17 MAPPING LOCATIONS DIGITAL TOURISM INTERACTION 20 FIELD RESEARCH IN JAPAN 22 UNDERSTANDING SEICHI JUNREI 25 LOCATION OBSERVATION 29 RURAL SEICHI JUNREI 29 METROPOLITAN SEICHI JUNREI 33 ANALYZING ISSUES WITH SEICHI JUNREI 36 IMPROVING SEICHI JUNREI 37 SUMMARY 37 PARTICIPATORY DESIGN OF WEB APP PROTOTYPE 39 DIGITAL TOURISM PARTICIPATORY DESIGN 39 DESIGN WORKSHOP 39 DESIGN OVERVIEW 42 COMPARING SEICHI JUNREI ALTERNATIVES 42 PROTOTYPE DESIGN PROCESS 44 SKETCHES AND WIREFRAMES 46 CHARACTER DESIGN 55 PROTOTYPE SHOWCASE 58 PROTOTYPE TESTING 64 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 72 RESULT LIMITATION 75 CONCLUSION 75 FUTURE STUDY 77 REFERENCES 78 GLOSSARY 82 CONSENT FORM 84 Table of Figures Figure 1 Akihabara Tokyo Japan. 1 Figure 2 example of moe. 5 Figure 3 Washimiya event. 6 Figure 4 The design process. 11 Figure 5 Ethnographic notes. 13 Figure 6 Reddit and Discord anime groups. 17 Figure 7 Interview with Lee Cheong Loong from Yogurt Media. 19 Figure 8 Anime and seichi junrei locations. 20 Figure 9 Map of seichi junrei. 21 Figure 10 Author of a manga engaging with the readers. 22 Figure 11 Magia Record gacha game. 23 Figure 12 Example pages of Japanese Anime 88 Spots magazine. 25 Figure 13 The Anime Man and Edgar Axelsson. 27 Figure 14 Ema the wooden plaques. 28 Figure 15 Laid-Back Camp the scene in the anime and the same place in real life. 30 Figure 16 Hints from laid back camp locations. 31 Figure 17 Laid-back camp seichi junrei. 33 Figure 18 Your name movie staircase. 34 Figure 19 Hatsune Miku itasha Akihabara. 35 Figure 20 Leg work web archival. 36 Figure 21 Design workshop doing participatory design with otaku community members. 40 Figure 22 Voting process for prototype features. 41 Figure 23 Japanese Anime 88 Spots magazine and Legwork feature broken down. 43 Figure 24 Suggested features by the community. 44 Figure 25 The design process of the prototype. 45 Figure 26 Sketch of the prototype. 46 Figure 27 User interaction with the platform. 48 Figure 28 Testing the research question. 49 Figure 29 Main page wireframe of project ライ. 50 Figure 30 Log in wireframe of project ライ. 51 Figure 31 Menu wireframe of project ライ. 52 Figure 32 Tourism experience wireframe of project ライ. 54 Figure 33 Anime character mascot of Mount Fuji. 55 Figure 34 Akihabara. 56 Figure 35 Rai seichi junrei mascot. 57 Figure 36 Rai mascot animated into a realistic background to create seichi junrei. 58 Figure 37 Main website page. 59 Figure 38 Main menu page. 61 Figure 39 Laidback camp seichi junrei page. 62 Figure 40 Report card. 65 Figure 41 Total score of the prototype. 66 Figure 42 A/B test results. 68 Figure 43 Project ライ testing by community members. 69 Figure 44 Magi Record character augmented reality photo mode. 70 Figure 45 Ufotable and anime tourism association. 76 Introduction Introduction Seichi junrei is a fast-growing tourism phenomenon within the otaku subculture. Otaku’s subculture members have dedicated a huge amount of time exploring real-life anime locations. The term seichi junrei in Japanese means anime pilgrimage and it’s on the rise as a niche tourism phenomenon. The reason for the phenomena being niche is because some of the activities that the subculture does are unique to Japan (Okamura, 2010). From participating in Shinto anime rituals to cosplaying as your favorite anime character. Japan takes the concept of cuteness to animation to a whole new level with millions of storming Akihabara. Figure 1 Akihabara Tokyo Japan. Akihabara is a popular subculture location for other otaku subculture members to gather and share their identities. Identity is strong within the otaku subculture where anyone can become one just by watching their favorite anime or joining an online community. “The settings of Japanese anime series are often closely based on real locations. Places like shrines and train stations featured in these cartoons are often hunted down by fans on visits called seichi junrei, which translates as Page | 1 Introduction "holy land pilgrimage." Local governments and businesses sometimes even promote the connections to well-known places, decorating train stations with characters or selling souvenirs at shrines. But there's a more challenging version of the pursuit: a subculture of hobbyists who hunt for everyday streetscapes, shops, and train stations reproduced in these cartoons in exquisite detail. Called butaitanbou, which translates as "scene hunting," it's not as simple as it might sound.” (Lombardi 2016). While seichi junrei is growing Japan faces problems with tourism with big cities like Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. Having issues with overpopulated tourism creates a challenge for the Japanese government to scatter tourists across the country. Some rural cities are dependent on tourism and have tourism as the main source of income for the city or community (Kreps, 1997). Platforms like TripAdvisor offer tourism services and experience, but it’s usually tailored towards popular tourism locations (Ardito, 2019). Niche tourism experiences have become more popular and are not taken as seriously as popular tourism locations. The Japanese government has tried to launch a project called Anime Tourism Association. However, the feedback that was received was mixed. This is due to the government trying to commercialize the idea of seichi junrei and voice their own opinions. Not allowing others to participate as much. The association was criticized for taking favors from big anime companies for beneficial purposes. Hatena Group which was another solution where the platform achieved seiche junrei tourism experiences. The idea behind the platform was to serve as an archival database for others who enjoy a similar activity. However, the archival platform was hard to navigate and did not provide valuable tourism information. It was also disliked by a few otaku community members because it used web scraping techniques to gather their information (Hatena Group 2013). As of writing this thesis Hatena Group has shut down its services and is no longer in operations. With a limit to information and not much to go on with the phenomena on seichi junrei. This creates a problem area of tourism development. Overpopulated tourism in big cities and little to no tourism in rural areas of Japan. Followed by issues with finding a good platform to explore the phenomena of seichi junrei. Requiring additional research to understand why the otaku subculture doesn't have a good solid platform that would help them with tourism development. Digital tourism developed by David Benyon is a method of understanding tourism and attempting to digitize the tourism experience. Focusing on 3 principles. Before, during and, after tourism experience, this is used by user experience developers to develop good tourism Page | 2 platforms. The idea behind the 3 principles is to focus on the analysis of tourism experience. To understand how it can be improved (Benyon, 2014). During this master thesis, I traveled to Japan to create a platform that would help solve the tourism problems of seichi junrei. I focused on ethnography and observation to understand the Japanese culture closer and use them as a model for community development. Together through participatory design and media technology we attempted to create a platform that helps seiche junrei become more recognizable. This study aims to investigate how user experience designers can work with a subculture to create a good design for tourism development. As well as how to work together with the observational group on creating a community-driven user experience design for tourism development through media technology.
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